"Each step forward has a sacred meaning of its own"   Sri Chinmoy

Ipswich 2 Mile Race - Christchurch Park - July 2019

This was the first time we've held a 2 mile race at the Ipswich Joy Day - it's an annual gathering to celebrate the inauguration of Sri Chinmoy's statue in Chantry Park, but when I went looking for a route for a morning race I found another park with Sri Chinmoy connections.

Christchurch Park is a couple of hundred metres from the hotel where we were mostly staying and about the same distance from our meditation centre, so although I only announced we'd be running the night before, 4 people surprisinly came along!

After our usual pre-race silence we ran into the park on the 6-lap course I'd "measured" with calibrated GPS the day before. It had a few slopes but was as flat as you'll get in Christchurch Park for sure. 6 times we ran past the benches and Peace Garden dedicated to Sri Chinmoy who held a peace picnic here many decades ago. It's a peaceful spot and if we hadn't been here running on a damp morning I'd have wanted to come here for a quick meditation at least - maybe next year?

After we finished the consensus was that the course was probably accurate or maybe a tad long - the results were:

Garga - 13.32, Mena 16.13, Neil 20.45, Kokila 22.40

We've all been running quicker than that but with the slopes and twists and turns it was nowhere near a PB course. I have a feeling we'll be using it again though.....

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